Letters to Mituna
by PotentiallyHarmful
Summary: A sad captor story that might get better. Mituna needs multiple hugs. #Mental Illness
1. Chapter 1

1997

The darkness is scary. The silence is overwhelming.

Today, for being bad Mituna Captor has been placed in "The Hole." A bad place that's too small for most kids. It's where the fake parents put him and other kids for hours on end. Sometimes completely forgetting about him until some other kid has done something bad and the fake parent takes him out and replaces him with another kid.

By the time he's switched out he'll have soiled himself and screamed until his lungs feel fit to burst.

Today was one of the longest times Mituna himself has been left here in this terrible place. He's only five... what could a child his age possibly do to deserve this?... What could ANY child do to deserve this?

It smells like urine and vomit as usual. The fake parents never clean it.

As usual when Mituna is in this tiny tiny space, he can hear the other kids screaming and playing and running around. It's as if they've forgotten about him too. Just this morning he'd been their friend and playmate. And now it's like he never existed. Just another day where bad Mituna is put in The Hole.

The only one that gives any sort of damn about him is his only brother, Sollux. He's only 4, but he's pretty mature. Sollux has had no choice but to become mature to deal with all this nonsense.

The small fist of that brother knocks on the door of The Hole.

"Mituna, are you okay?" The younger boy whispers.

"No," Mituna whimpers sadly. He puts his hands on the door and another session of sobbing breaks through. Sollux puts his hands on the door too. "I'm so sorry Mituna... You'll get out in a couple of hours..."

"How do you know?" Mituna asked.

"Cuz I heard someone is coming to look at us today." Sollux's words seem to mean nothing to Mituna. They don't seem to have any weight when Sollux says them either. Neither of them believe someone will come for them.

"Get your ears cleaned..." Mituna says almost angrily.

This sort of thing has happened many times. The fake mommy says that someone is coming to look at them and in the end either someone looks and decides they don't want both of them, or they never show up at all.

"Mituna. Please hold on for a couple more hours..." Sollux begged. Mituna hit the wall hard with one fist and one open hand. Sollux backs off from the door in surprise.

"They won't come!" Mituna spits through his gritted teeth. Sollux looks down at his knees, bloody from having to clean the floors on them. Bruised from the times he's fallen due to the fake mommy pushing him off of his already clumsy feet.

The younger boy begins to cry silently and stands up to walk away towards the other kids. Mituna feels bad for hurting his brother like that. He made the only person he loves and cares about cry. Mituna really does deserve to be in this box doesn't he?... Mituna deserves it...

An hour and a half passes and the darkness is cracked only a little when the door is open to a darkened room. The lights don't work and fake mommy and daddy are too cheap to get new light bulbs or, you know, fix the electricity somehow. They're adults, why can' they fix stuff?

"Mituna you little shit stand up properly!" Fake mommy yells as she yanks the frail boys arm up and out of The Hole and forcing him to stand.

"Pissed yourself again huh? Disgusting rat. Go get cleaned up. Someone's supposed to see you and that other one." She says without much belief it will happen. Mituna knows no one will come. But just this once he's glad that any sort of circumstance got him out of The Hole...

He walks to the bathroom and steps on a stool and looks at himself in a rather broken mirror. The bathroom smells of black mold and the wood looks grey and rotting. The person staring back at him has black hair so messing and long it covers his eyes. When he lifts his bands with a boney hand he sees brown eyes sunken in, cheeks nearly hollowed out and chapped lips that hurt and split when he moves them wrong. He can see his collar bones poking out from above his too big dirty brown shirt. Who is this child? That can't be him... It isn't him. Isn't it though?...

Mituna washes his face and then enters the part of the small bathroom that would normally hold a tub, but is just tile with a drain and a broken shower head that pours cold water out like a hose. He takes his dirty clothes off but takes them with him into the cold water to clean what he can from them... The water is so cold it's like ice. He knows he'll never get used to it. With a squeeze of his shirt and underwear Mituna hangs the damp clothing over the sink and then begins to scrub himself down with his hands. The water becomes too cold for him to bear any longer and he turns the water off and squeezes his hair out and then shakes it around, and squeezes once more.

He manages to sneak by fake daddy up the stairs to his shared room without his brother, but with several other children. The only other pair of clothes he has are another too big shirt, diarrhea green this time, old and thin with little balls of lint all over it from being washed with rags and such. But he gratefully puts the shirt and mildly new underwear on. Even a little bit of warmth is appreciated right now.

The sound of tiny steps coming into the room frighten Mituna, but when he sees it's his little brother he smiles. But it fades quickly when he sees dried tears and big sad eyes.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you Sollux." Mituna says apologetically. Sollux only shakes his head and goes over to his brother and wraps his arms around him. The two hug tightly for a long minute. Fights or small outbursts like before usually never keep the two angry or upset for long. They're all they have and they both know it. So what good would it do them to lose the others support?

"Fake mommy pulled me out of The Hole and told me someone was visiting us, just like you said." Mituna says. The two don't release their hug and instead fiddle with something on the others person. Mituna favors Sollux's hair since it's the first thing his hand can reach. Sollux pulls and twists Mituna's shirt hem at the bottom.

"Yeah. What's gonna happen to us Mituna?" Sollux says. Mituna thinks for a long time then shakes his head. "I dunno." This doesn't seem to encourage Sollux all that much, but it wasn't meant to. Mituna answered his brother with exactly what he thought.

"Maybe a big tall bee king will come and beat up the fakers for us and swoop us away." Mituna throws his arms up in the air and Sollux lights up just a little bit.

"Yeah! Or maybe a balloon, a shiny one, will float down and pop in their faces!" Sollux says with some excitement. "OR the boogieman will take all their teeth out and give them to a bird for its nest." He says with mischief in his tone. Mituna giggles at the thought of the fake parents with no teeth yelling up at a bird with a shiny new nest. Although he rethinks that and is sure even the bird wouldn't want those ugly rotting grey teeth the two have.

Suddenly a booming mans voice calls up to them.

"Mituna! Pollux!" He calls. Sollux sighs.

"My name is SOLLUX..." Sollux says, clearly irritated that his name is never remembered.

"Someone's here to see you!" The fake daddy's voice is deep and has a bit of a southern accent to it, but not a COOL one like a cowboy or something.

The brothers look at each other, only a little surprised that someone ACTUALLY showed up.

"Coming!" Mituna calls back and takes Sollux's hand. The two leave the room and go down stairs into the room where they usually go to see other potential fake parents.

"Sollux, Mituna," Begins fake mommy. "This here is..." She looks at the man, quietly asking his name. The man looks... sorta familiar to Mituna. But his face looks scared.

"I'm Simon..." He says rather quietly.

"Simon, the older one there is Sollux and that younger one there is Mituna."

"I'm..." Mituna starts. Fake mommy looks at him, acid ready to pour from the intense greenness of her stare.

"I'm the older one. I'm five."

"I'm four." Sollux says, speaking up with his brother. Simon nods.

"So. Want 'em?" Fake mommy says outright. Simon looks up at her from his chair with a questioning look. Mituna doesn't quite understand what that look means, but the tall black haired mans words almost send Mituna into shock.

"Of CORUSE I want them. They're MY sons in the first place."


	2. Chapter 2

Sollux and Mituna stand in shock together, holding each other's hands tightly and watches as Simon sign the papers to take them from this bad place...

Simon holds his hands out to the young boys with a small worried smile.

"Mituna. Sollux. Let's go home." He says to them. Mituna and Sollux look at each other and then both take one of Simon's hands and the three of them walk out of the shabby house.

The two weren't really allowed outside, there being no fence and all. The sky was so blue. Not a cloud in sight. The birds chirping sounded almost strange to Mituna. Today is weird he decides.

"So you're really adopting us?..." Sollux finally says. Once the three of them make it off the property and next to a car, Simon bends down to the two boys and looks at them.

"Yes. This may seem strange, but I'm your real daddy. I know this is really weird to you two, but... I don't know if explaining to you two what happened is appropriate for your age." Simon stares at the two and feels both love and shame... His two beautiful boys are standing right in front of him. The shame comes from the condition they're in... This is unacceptable... He'll be sure to report this place.

"If you're our real daddy then why can't I remember you?" Mituna says. "Why didn't you come get us before?" Simon stares at him, thinking hard about his words...

"I wasn't able to. I wanted to get you both. I wanted you both so much... My precious boys..." Simon says with his eyes visibly glazing over. Sollux sniffles and puts his tiny hands to Simon's face.

"Don't cry daddy!" He says loudly. Mituna isn't sure why Sollux is so ready to believe this guy... They've known him for all of five minutes and he's already calling him their daddy just because he claims that role... Then again SOMEONE has to be their real daddy right?...

Simon holds Sollux's hands and then hugs him and Mituna close. "My sons. I've missed you so much... You'll never know how much I love you..." He pulls the two boys back a little and kisses their heads.

"You will NEVER have to be with people like THAT again... You'll never ever come back here. You'll have REAL food, and beds and your own rooms if you want, and you'll DEFINITELY have better clothes than THIS... You know those people were bad right?" Simon says. Mituna and Sollux both nod quickly and a lot. This seems to relieve a little weight off of Simon's shoulders as he nods an affirmative.

"Good... Good. Now... Have you two ever been in a car?"

"No. We weren't allowed to do anything." Sollux says quickly.

"Ever." Mituna corroborates. "We couldn't be loud, or throw things, or talk. Fake mommy and daddy hit us and put us in the Hole."

"THE HOLE?" Simon says, clear disbelief in his voice. His eyes are big and the two nod. "What is the hole?"

"The hole is a bad place. It's tiny and dark and smells bad. Fake mommy and daddy would put us and other kids in there for a super long time if we were bad..." Sollux says beginning to look down. Mituna's eyes begin to sting and get hot... He was the one who was in there the most out of all the kids... A lot of the time for no other reason than fake mommy not wanting to look at him. Simon slowly shakes his head then shakes it even more and hugs his boys again.

"There's no such thing as The Hole at our house... I PROMISE nothing like this will ever ever happen to you again... Please don't cry Mituna, I'm so sorry." The look of sadness on Simons face finally breaks Mituna's questioning attitude towards him, and he hugs his daddy tightly around the neck. Simon hugs his boys so tightly he suddenly fears he may break their frail bodies. How DARE those people do such a thing to his sons... To ANY child. But ESPECIALLY his sons.

They will not hear the last of Simon Captor...

Simon gets the boys into the back seat of his car which already has two booster seats in it waiting for them, and they drive off. The boys are absolutely AMAZED and flabbergasted at this car. They've never been in one and have no idea how it's supposed to feel. It's all so new to them. New and exciting! Almost overwhelming. Other cars zoom by, buildings move super fast up close, but hardly move at all when they're far away. Why is that? Strange. People walk along the sidewalks, some talking on what look like thin white bricks. There are big TV's hanging on some buildings playing various things like football which people yell at excitedly, very pretty ladies laying on some really cool looking cars, and some fluffy white and yellow things that keep popping.

"Are we allowed to call you 'daddy'?" Sollux finally says. Simon pulls up to a red light and looks back with a smile.

"Please DO! I would love it if you called me Daddy. I AM the real one after all." Simon says with a chortle.

"What's your real name? How old are you?" Mituna says quickly.

"Well my real name is Simon Captor. Just like how you boys are Mituna Captor and Sollux Captor. You got your last names from me. And I'm 28 years old. Do you two know how to count to 28?" Simon looks back at them again and the two shake their heads confused. It seems Simon has a lot of work to do...

"Do you two knowww your colors? Or shapes?"

"Uhm... I KINDA know colors." Sollux says unsure. Mituna just shakes his head to both, which troubles Simon even more.

"I'll teach you two a lot, so don't feel bad about not knowing things okay? Fake mommy and daddy didn't teach you anything did they?"

"Nope." The two say in unison.

Their blue 1993 dynasty Chrysler pulls up to a Kmart and Simon get the two boys out of the car. The two are shocked when their dad lifts them both up into his arms at the same time and snuggles them. They laugh a little and cuddle his head as he walks in through the sliding doors. People look at them all a bit strangely. The skinny poorly dressed boys drawing a lot of attention. Simon doesn't care though because he knows he's going to fix them RIGHT up.

"Where are we daddy?" Sollux asks. He looks around at this HUGE place with all the people and new smells.

"This is Kmart. I'm gonna buy you two some new clothes. Those shirts you have on are old and they're way too thin, and for heaven's sake you two have no pants at all?" Simon gets the two into a card and pushes them around in it heading to the little boys clothing area.

"No. I have a underwear and a shirt." Sollux says. "I have two underwear and two shirts." Mituna says after. Silas pulls to the right where the carpet makes the cart ride just a little bit quieter.

"First of all, that's crazy. Secondly, I thought you said you two couldn't count." Simon says. He stops the cart and starts pulling a bunch of shirts and pants and socks form shelves.

"We can't. I only know 5 since that's how old I am." Mituna doesn't dare touch anything even though he wants too. A bright yellow shirt catches his attention, but touching things that aren't his usually lead to a big fake daddy hand hitting him right in the face.

"Don't worry, you'll learn." Simon notices Mituna has spotted a shirt and picks it up.

"You like this one Mituna?" Daddy smiles and Mituna smiles back, feeling a burst of happiness.

"Yeah!"

"I want that- one..." Sollux began to get excited, but is only used to a smack if he raises his voice or says 'I want.' So his voice trails off. Simon grabs the shirt that Sollux points out.

"This one?"

"Y-yes." A tiny smile appears on Sollux's cute face and Simon kisses both of their heads.

"Then you may have them." Simon smiles big and the two bothers look at each other in shock and then giggle to themselves.

An hour or so of trying on clothes go by until Mituna's stomach growls so loudly it frightens Simon for a moment. Mituna's eyes go wide and he bites his lip. A hungry stomach always made fake daddy and mommy very angry so they'd throw stale bread at them or a can of soup for them to open. The can would usually not be caught by the clumsy children and would hit them and give them bruises. Simon sees the fear on his face and has to act fast, petting his head a bit.

"How silly of me, you two must be hungry right? When did you eat last?" Simon says with a smile. Gotta keep the anger down Simon. Those foster parents will get what's coming to them. Don't show the boys that you're upset. It will scare them more.

Sollux thinks and looks at Mituna with thought... Mituna folds his arms, then quickly unfolds them with worry. Folding arms was seen as confrontational and fake daddy hated that...

"Uhm... Yesterday? The day before?" Sollux says looking up at his brother and holding his hand. Mituna nods and then Simon nods.

"Wow. That's too long. You two have to eat at LEAST three times every day." The look of shock on the boy's faces is very telling to Simon...

"Yes you heard me correct, three times every single day. No wonder you two are so skinny... Alright after this I'll take you home and make you two a good dinner. How does that sound?"

"Yeah!" Sollux shouts happily! Mituna still expects the worst since that's all he knows. But he does quietly say 'yeah' after his brother.

"Alright then, I suppose we have enough clothes for a bit until next time. Ah I have to get you shoes too." Another confused look from his sons gives Simon another wave of disbelief and rage. But he easily just smiles and kisses their heads and puts the boys with their new clothes in the cart and gets in line, grabbing some of the quick buys on either side. Some small candy bars, some little toys and a pack of gum for himself. He explains to the cashier in hushed tones about having just adopted them, and the lady looks worried and asks from where. Simon explains again that this will be the last time those fake parents ever have ANYONE in their care again. The lady nods and pats him on the shoulder and shakes his hand and even gives him a bit of a discount on the clothes that weren't on sale in the first place. Mituna and Sollux just watch curiously. What are they even talking about? They're whispering too much!

The family gets to the car, unloads the bags into the trunk and then get buckled up and drive away. Once they get to a street sign, one like the many other's the two boys have noticed, Simon speaks.

"We're almost home you two. To your real home. The one you were born in Mituna."

"Born in?" Mituna repeats. Simon nods. "Yes. Every baby is born somewhere. I was born in a hospital and you two were born in my bedroom when your mom and I couldn't make it to the hospital."

"What's a hospiple?" Sollux asks questioningly. With a chuckle from Simon he responds with "A hospital is where sick people go, and where mommy's with their babies go to give birth. Your mom just woke up one night and she went into labor so fast I couldn't even pack the back to drive her to the hospital. And then Mituna, you were born. Your birthday is July 17th." Simon says, pulling up into a driveway of a very nice clean dusty blue house. A bay window is the focal point, just above two long flower beds. A door to a garage opens up and Simon drives inside of it. Inside is a wall with some tools hanging from it nearly and organized by size.

"When was I born?" Sollux asks excitedly.

"Uhm..." Simon thinks...

"I think it was August 15th? It's sort of a long story. But I'll make sure to see exactly when you were born okay Sollux?"

"Okay!" Mituna wonders why Simon doesn't know the exact day, but doesn't really know about that sorta stuff anyway, so he doesn't dwell on it.

"Alright boys, here we are." Simon unbuckles himself and gets out, then opens the door to the back and undoes Mituna first, and when he climbs out to his bare feet, Sollux follows.

"I like it here." Sollux says, assuming the garage is their home.

"Ah no no silly, this is the garage. This is the cars home. Through that door there is the place WE'LL be staying. Follow me. Watch your step here." Three little steps lead up to a door.

Simon takes each boys hand and lifts them up each step.

"One, two, three!" Simon says happily. He opens the door away from him and they enter a foyer which opens right up to a kitchen. Everything is so nicely lit. Shades of light green and yellow, baby blue and solid white make up the majority of the house so far. The boys stare at everything in shock. It's so pretty and nice!

"See boys, when we get into this room, we take off our shoes right here and put them in this cubby. That's what you'll do when you have shoes on okay?" Simon demonstrates and the boys nod.

"Welcome home boys." Simon says with a smile. The two look up at him and then at each other... then hug Simon's legs. Simon bends down and hugs his boys and kisses each of their heads.

"We have a home Mituna." Sollux says with a small sniffle. Mituna nods smiling back.

"Yeah."


	3. Chapter 3

Simon shows the two boys around the house and after having a proper meal, the boys fall asleep together on the couch. With a smile, Simon grabs the two up in his arms and takes them to his own room so he can sleep with them and keep an eye on them.

Late in the night, Simon is awoken by Mituna standing up at the foot at the bed staring out the door.

"Mituna? Are you okay? Do you need to use the bathroom?" Simon says tiredly. Mituna is quiet and perfectly still. Simon becomes worried and scoots over to the edge of the bed and reaches out for his son.

"Mituna?" Before his hand can reach Mituna, the young boy turns and grabs it hard, eyes wide. Simon is surprised but only speaks quietly.

"It's okay Mituna. It's me, daddy. You're at home, remember? Are you scared of the dark?" More silence and Simon gets a strange feeling coming from the boy. As if it isn't him.

"How did I get here?" Mituna says. But he sound angry and scared.

"I drove you here. I adopted you and your brother Sollux, remember?... I'm your daddy."

"My daddy?" Mituna's grip on Simons arm loosens and he finally lets go and stares up at Simon. Simon can see that this look is not the same as the Mituna from this afternoon...

"Yes. Your daddy. Your REAL daddy. You aren't with those people anymore." Simon continues to speak softly to calm Mituna down some and the boy looks down...

"Can we turn a light on?" Mituna says softly. Simon nods a bit and stands walking over to a dresser and digs through it. There's a tap light inside and he takes it out and hands it to Mituna.

"Touch it." Mituna eyes the device as best as he can in the dark and then touches it. It emits a soft white glow that makes him squint. While in the light, Simon sees that Mituna's expression is hard and angry. He can't imagine why this is... but as the seconds of quiet and light go by, the expression softens and he holds it to his chest.

"Ooh, a light!" He says excitedly now, a very happy expression. "Hm? How did I get out of bed?... I'm tired daddy..." Simon is flabbergasted at this... but he decides he'll look into it tomorrow. Could he have been sleeping walking? Do you even talk when you sleep walk? Strange indeed.

"You crawled out. Do you have to use the bathroom?" Simon asks, putting his hand to Mituna's forehead. Is he sick perhaps? It wouldn't surprise him after being in that shitty hell that was the orphanage...

"I crawled out?... Hm. I don't remember... but I do have to go to the bathroom... can you come with me?" He looks up at his daddy with a pleading face and Simon smooches his forehead.

"Of course." Simon goes over to Sollux and very carefully picks him up and holds him with one hand on his butt, and then takes Mituna's hand with his own free one and leads him to the bathroom.

Mituna puts the tap light on the floor next to the toilet and pulls down his pants.

"Don't you want me to turn the light on?" Simon asks. Mituna shakes his head. "No, I don't wanna wake up Sollux." The young boy does his business and Simon thinks about all the stuff he'll have to do tomorrow. Giving the boys a bath is the first thing he plans on doing. Maybe a hair cut... and of course set up doctor appointments for the two of them. AND reporting those terrible people. Maybe a therapist would be a good idea too... Simon looks down and notices Sollux has his thumb in his mouth... He'll have to get Sollux to stop doing that if he hopes to save his teeth.

Mituna flushes the toilet which is surprisingly quiet. He goes to the sink which is too tall even for him, but he stands on his toes and washes his hands. Simon is glad to see he has at least a LITTLE sense of hygiene...

"Daddy?" Mituna says quietly.

"Yes Mituna?"

"I'm scared..." Simon's eyebrows rise a bit and he holds out his hand once Mituna picks up the tap light.

"Why are you scared?"

"I don't know. I'm just really scared. The door is scary." "The door?" Simon looks at where Mituna is looking and it's the door that leads to Mituna's room. Why would the DOOR be scary? Is it because it belongs to his room? Or is it the door itself? Simon feels Mituna's hand begin to sweat and tighten its grip on the bigger hand.

"I don't like it." Mituna says a bit louder. Sollux shifts a bit on Simon's chest...

Simon kneels down carefully and stares at his young soon carefully.

"Can you tell me why?"

Mituna is quiet, but he forces himself to look away from the door and buries his face in his dads shoulder. Simon picks him up and kisses his head.

"It's okay Mituna. Nothing here can hurt you. Will it make you feel better if I have a bunch of night lights put in?" Simon walks back to his room at the opposite end of the hall from Mituna's room, and the young boy nods, seeming to relax just a little. But Simon can feel the young boy's temperature go up a bit.

The night is long and Mituna doesn't go to sleep for another hour. The panic faded away after a few minutes, but started back up again after half an hour. This seems to have exhausted him because he falls asleep right after that.

That next morning Simon wakes up first and begins calling and setting up doctor appointments for the boys, and then makes breakfast. The smell rouses Sollux from sleep and he walks around the house.

"Daddy?" He calls quietly, nervous that he may be alone... That feeling is squashed when Simon calls to him. "I'm here in the kitchen Sollux. Do you want some breakfast?"

"I'm allowed to?" Sollux says cautiously. "Of course you are. Every single morning you, me and Mituna will eat breakfast together at the table. Kids your age HAVE to have a good breakfast so you can go through the day doing things at full power."

"Oh. I like that rule." Sollux smiles and goes over to the table and sits in a chair.

"Sollux, does Mituna sleep walk?" Simon asks, still facing the eggs that are beginning to turn white.

"Sleep walk?"

"When he gets up in the middle of the night." Sollux thinks, then nods.

"Yeah. Sometimes he's mean to me at night. He'll forget who I am sometimes too and he'll grab me super hard."

"Does he do that any other time in the day?"

"Sometimes. But it's mostly at night."

"Does he scare you?" Simon asks, flipping the egg over and letting it sizzle and pop.

"Hm... No." This sort of thing must be normal enough for it not to frighten him anymore... What could it be?...

"Does he not like doors?"

"Doors?" Sollux thinks, rubbing his eyes. "Uhm... The only door he didn't like was the Hole. We hate that door. They lock us up in it for a long long time. Mituna screams and yells and hits the door a lot when he's in there. Then he talks to himself. That's when he scares me." Talks to himself?... Those damn people fucked up his sons. Ooh lord they're gonna regret coming across Simon Captor that's for damn sure.

"Well. Now you and your brother will never EVER have to see those people again. No more Hole and no more of that other stuff. You two are safe now and daddy will take care of you both okay? Do you believe me?" Simon slides the eggs onto a plate and looks back at Sollux. The young black haired boy smiles and nods happily.

"I believe you." With a kiss to his head, Simon sets down the plate of eggs in the center of the table.

"I'm glad. Now. I'll serve you breakfast in just one second, I'm gonna wake your brother up okay?"

"Okay. But he's super upset in the morning."

"Not a morning person huh? Thank you for telling me." Simon walks out of the kitchen and back to his room, where Mituna is sleeping in a strange position with the sheets wrapped around his legs and his whole body sprawled out. Simon wants to laugh, but he knows how to handle this non morning tolerant son of his.

He goes to the bed and crawls on it softly and lays down next to his son. It's amazing how much the two of them look like him. It makes Simon very happy.

"Mituuunaaa?~" Simon says quietly, lightly touching Mituna's arm. Mituna stirs and grumpily stuffs his face into a pillow with an irritated growl. Even such careful provocation makes him this mad? Good lord.

"Do you want five more minutes?" Daddy says softly. Silence from Mituna... then he lifts the pillow away from his head and looks at Simon for a moment. His poor tired son's eyes glaze over and he sniffles.

"Awww. I'm sorry Mituna." Mituna shakes his head a little and scoots to Simon's chest and puts an arm around him and cries softly. Simon inwardly chuckles, but feels bad at the same time. He sits up with his son and holds him.

"I didn't mean to make you cry." He kisses Mituna's head softly several times until the boy calms down and wipes his eyes all over Simons grey shirt. Mituna sniffs hard and adjusts his head to the side.

"You dint. I hate waking up..."

"I hate waking up too. But you know, your brother's up and I made breakfast. Don't you wanna be in there with him so he's not by himself?" The softness in Simon's voice is so new to him. All he's ever heard is that stupid fake mommy yelling at him and pushing him to get up which sets off Mituna's anger and that usually get him in the Hole. But this quiet loving daddy he has makes him feel so much better. His morning energy can only be taken out on his emotions, and so he cries.

Mituna nods and sniffs again. "Okay." Simon says standing up with his son still in his arms. He walks to the kitchen and sees Sollux standing on the table looking up at the kitchen light. Simon tries not to freak out and have Sollux fall down from the table, but he can't help but let a little panic spill out.

"Sollux Captor please get down off of that table." Sollux looks over at Simon and quickly climbs down. "I don't want you to fall and get hurt." He adds with a calmer tone.

Simon puts Mituna down on his feet, and the boy walks over to his brother and leans on him heavily and hugs him with his eyes closed.

"Does he always do that?" Simon asks. Sollux nods and hugs his brother back.

"Well, Mituna when you're done, I'd like you to sit here in this chair okay? So I can feed you and your brother. I have lots of stuff made and prepared." Simon goes over to the counter and starts pouring small amounts of drinks, apple juice and orange juice deluded in water, milk and then plain old water. He deludes the apple juice and orange juice of course because acid isn't that great for kids stomachs, and the sugar is awful. The kids will be bouncing off the walls if he doesn't water it down a bit.

Mituna finally finds his way to his seat and he puts his head on the table tiredly.

"Thank you for the light daddy." He says quietly, moving his eyes to look at Simon. Simon comes back to the table a few times with lots of foods to eat and try out.

"You're welcome. I'll buy lots of lights today while we're out doing stuff. No son of mine will be scared of the dark." Mituna smiles and then sits up. All the food on the table is confusing. He looks around and Simon tilts his head.

"Mituna? What are you looking for?"

"Where is everyone?"

"Everyone?" Mituna looks up at Simon. "Where are all the people who are gonna eat this?"

"All three of us are here. All this food is for us." When Simon sees the boys' eyes light up like it's fucking Christmas morning, he wants to snuggle his cute sons and strangle the life out of those orphanage parents...

"For US?" Sollux nearly whispers in surprise. He looks at the food and then at Simon a few times.

"Yes. For us. Here are some pancakes, some waffles, eggs, a bit of toast, this toast here has cinnamon on it, these are hash browns, a spinach omelet, carrots and broccoli with ranch dressing, and here are some strawberries, oranges, apples, kiwi, and blue berries." everything is in small amounts so the boys can try one thing at a time, and if they don't like it, they can move on to something else without wasting a ton of food. The pancakes, eggs and hash browns are all on one plate for each boy, and two quarter squares of toast, one regular and buttered, one with a bit of cinnamon on it. There are small balls of a spinach omelet in a bowl and all the veggies and fruits are sorted out in a small bowl as well.

"Start wherever you want and eat what you want. The drinks here are apple juice with the A written on the cup, O for orange juice, M for milk and W for water." Simon looks up from the food and at Sollux and Mituna who are sitting next to each other. Each of them has tears coming from their eyes and Simon just KNOWS what they're gonna say.

"We... never had any of this. Why are you being so nice to us?" Sollux asks.

"Why?" Simon is completely god smacked. WHY he asks!

"Because you're my sons and I love you very much. And my growing boys have to have lots of good food that's good for you. You two are the most important things in my life and I'll be gosh darned if I don't feed you boys well." Mituna sniffles and lets out a small sob, covering his eyes with open palms.

"I love you too daddy!" He bellows. Sollux nods and half yells "Me too! I love you daddy!" Simon wants to cry too, but as the adult and the dad, he has to show the boys that he's strong and that they can rely on him to be that way when they need him. He goes over to them and kisses them both and hugs them.

"Aw boys. My sweet beautiful boys. I love you two so much... the food will get cold you know. Dry your eyes my tired angels." He uses one hand for each boy and wipes their eyes with a smile. The brothers sniffle and wipe their eyes and the family eats a hearty breakfast. It turns out the boys like everything! Even the veggies that Simon was SURE they'd spit out in disgust. But after hearing that they've never and such a breakfast, he's sure those two would eat just about anything if it filled their bellies...

Later in the day, Simon gets the boys bathed (boy was that an experience) and dressed, he gets them in their booster seats in the car and he drives off.

"Where are we going daddy?" Sollux says happily, kicking his feet.

"Weeee are going to the doctors."

"What's a doctors?" Rage building... Squash the rage Simon. SQUASH IT.

"Doctors are people who take care of you when you're sick. They're the people who work at hospitals and stuff. But we're not going to the hospital. Just an office where you two will get a normal check up. So I can see how you two are doing and where you're supposed to be in weight and height and all that."

"Oooh." Mituna says. But he still isn't sure what a doctor is. He'll just have to wait and see he guesses...


	4. Chapter 4

The wait for the doctor wasn't too long, but the two boys were eyed by other people in the waiting room. Simon was eyed too, but he didn't care.

Once they'd gotten in there and the doctor took a good look at both boys while Simon re-explains to the guy about the adoption and the conditions they were living in, the boys are in the corner looking at a magazine and pointing things out. The doctor talks quietly to Simon so the boys don't hear.

"Well Mr. Captor, there's good news and bad news..." The doctor says. Simon sighs and nods. He'd figured...

"Sollux is quite healthy for the most part. He's got a double ear infection though and of course the BOTH of them are malnourished. But you're taking care of that. The ear infection. I'll give him some antibiotics to get rid of it quickly. No lice, no gum disease, although he may need braces. Mituna too. Aaaahhh, he may have asthma, and just so nothing happens, I'll provide him with an Albuterol inhaler. No sense in having him go home and have something happen that's easily preventable. Sollux seems to be well mentally, but that isn't really my area of expertise so I'll have to refer you to-"

"Ah not to worry, I've already set up a couple other appointments for the boys to evaluate their mental health." Simon interrupts. The doctor nods and gives him a thumbs up.

"Now, onto Mituna... Here's where most of the bad news comes... Brace yourself Mr. Captor." Simon sees a certain look in the doctor's eyes, a certain position in which he sits that gets his heart racing and hands sweating. The doctor talks so quietly Simon almost doesn't hear it. But he does... And Simons face goes red with many emotions...

"I'm sorry Mr. Captor... but I'm afraid that did happen... The signs are clearly there. Old signs and... fresh ones."

"Oh my god." Simon covers his mouth with a hand and he looks down at his knees. Why... Why?! He's so young! What could they have gotten out of doing such a thing to a four year old boy...? God why?

The doctor nods a bit, and almost doesn't want to continue with the rest of his information, but as a doctor, it's his duty.

"And uh... Like I said, the mental health isn't my area, but from what you've told me of his last day or so, and from what I've been able to see and ask him... I believe he may have... something off about him." The doctor intertwines his hands together and he leans forward in the spinny chair. Simon looks up from his knees at the doctor, mouth still being covered... He takes his hand away just enough to speak.

"Off?"

"Off. I don't want to say what I suspect since I'm not a psychologist or anything but..."

"Please tell me so I... can get it dealt with faster."

"In my professional opinion, I believe what a psychologist would say is that he may have bipolar disorder, adhd and MPD."

"Jesus, what's MPD?" Simon runs his hand through his short black hair and leans back in his chair, clearly stressed.

"Multiple Personality Disorder. The media likes to call it DID, which is Dissociative Identity Disorder, but... I think that's baloney."

"MULTI-" Simon almost yells in frustration, but he calms himself so he doesn't appear strange to his sons.

"You're joking... Why that?" The doctor bites his lip a bit in thought.

"You said he didn't remember getting out of bed and grabbing you. And you said he was clearly awake and talking and that he seemed strange to you. And that he then didn't remember THAT. He seemed to be a different person... And then you told me about his strange behavior in the bathroom, which I think is an anxiety disorder." The doctor looks over at the two boys still pointing things out in the magazine and they giggle to each other.

"It may sound strange, but even young children can have panic attacks. They don't really know how to express it other than by telling you exactly what they're feeling. They'll start to sweat and shake and feel sick, all that stuff." There is silence between the two adults for a good two minutes. "But again, that appointment with the psychologist will be the most accurate way to tell exactly all the things he may and may not have. Physically the boys can get better quickly. But Mentally I... have concerns."

After the Captor family leaves the doctor's office, they drive to the next appointment, which is the psychologist he set up yesterday for the boys.

"Daddy, are you okay?" Mituna says softly to the clearly stressed out Simon. But Simon looks in the rear view mirror with a small smile. It's forced.

"I'm alright. I'm just thinking about all the stuff we have to do! I still have to get you boys more clothes, and cool toys and stuff! And we'll go grab some lunch when we get out of this next appointment. I super promise okay?"

"Okay!" Mituna smiles widely at his daddy and it just makes Simon's heart sink. How DARE those monsters do something like that to a child... Even hell won't be able to burn those orphanage parents' bodies good enough to satisfy Simon's utter rage... Satan will ask for notes on Simon's wrath that is to come.

Simon pulls up to the psychology building and sits there for a few seconds before shaking himself out of a train of thought, and gets the boys inside after unbuckling them.

The boys go into a room together with lots of colors and toys to play with. The lady who was sitting inside waiting for them comes out to talk to Simon who explains what the other doctor just told him. She hardly gives him a few words before going into the room. The two boys do things together easily and they have great teamwork and negotiating skills. Not knowing their colors, shapes, numbers or the alphabet puts a halt to a few tests, but the lady breezes through everything easily transitioning from one thing to another. Simon watches everything from the window where only he can see in and no one can see out, and can't stop thinking about that terrible thing the previous doctor told him... He knows he'll have to stop thinking about it long enough to focus on something else equally as important, but for now while he's mostly alone, he just wants to set those orphanage parents on GOD DAMN MOTHERFUCKING FIRE HOW DARE THEY DO SUCH A THING TO HIS SON, GOD JESUS IN HEAVEN SAVE HIS SOUL IF HE DOES GO CRAZY.

The lady finally separates the two boys and puts each boy in a room just as big and is almost identical to the first room.

Mituna stands at the door alone staring at the lady sitting in the chair waiting for him. Simon can't hear what she's saying, but she's trying to get Mituna to go to her willingly. But Mituna just stands there with a strange expression on his face. He's obviously scared to this new environment, now without his daddy AND his brother. The longer he stands there, the angrier Mituna seems to get. There it is again. That weird look he had last night. That angry wild look. Faster than either adult can blink, Mituna picks up a toy train and CHUCKS it at the woman with a scream. The woman manages to catch it, but by the time she does Mituna attacks her. He jumps at her and screams and yells like an animal. Even though the room is supposed to be soundproof, Simon can hear his son.

"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU BITCH GO TO HELL FUCK YOU!" He screams at the woman. Simon's jaw drops at such language coming from such a young boy, but the majority of his shock is of course from this insane behavior. The lady tries to speak calmly and quietly to Mituna, but the young boy just screams over her and kicks and punches and pulls at anything he can grab of her.

"CUNT! STUPID CUNT GO FUCK YOURSELF! YOU PIECE OF DOG SHIT!" The woman says something Simon can't hear well, but Mituna takes deep breaths clearly already worn out from the fighting, and tells her through gritted teeth something that makes the lady nod in an "aaaaah" way. She continues to speak calmly to Mituna and shows him a puzzle on the table. Mituna grabs it and Frisbee's the box at the lady's head, giving her a small cut. But even now she remains calm. This seems to completely piss Mituna off and he goes again, this time focusing his rage on everything else in the room that can't fight back. Toys, pictures, ripping parts of the carpet and biting some stuffed dolls and then proceeding to rip their limbs out.

Simon nearly wants to cry. The rage is so thick and so tangible. He just wants to hug his son and tell him it'll all be okay. But he knows that he's got to let the psychologist study all of this.

MPD.

It comes to him like a flying brick, smacking him right in the "oh my god" center of his brain. Could this be that angry child he was talking to last night? The one that grabbed him and asked him questions Mituna already knew. The one that hurts and sometimes scares Sollux...

Mituna finally sits down in a corner and breaths hard after his rampage. He's still for a moment until he looks around with a confused look on his face. Mituna looks at the room and doesn't seem shocked or anything, just 'oh wow, what a messy room.' Right after that he stands up and starts... picking the room up. He picks up the toys, he fixes the dolls he broke (as best as he can anyway) and he goes to the lady and sits down. She asks him something and Mituna responds with a smile.

Simon is completely flabbergasted. Did that really just happen? Christ he needs to sit down.

After Mituna's test, Simon is FINALLY allowed inside. Simon just about flies to Mituna's side as he begins to clean up the puzzle he was required to do.

"Hi, Mituna." He says quietly. Mituna looks over at him and smiles big!

"Hi Daddy! Look! She let me hold this thing and make lines!" He of course means the lady had him color on some paper.

"Wow, yeah look at you go! Oh, are you right handed?" Mituna looks at his hand a little confused. The lady answers for him.

"He seems to prefer his right hand over his left. The left hand just makes him very frustrated because it's not as easy as the right hand. Which is whatever. Most people are right handed anyhow."

"Yeah... So..." The lady can see that Simon is clearly shaken up about the insane tantrum and then the instant switch from that to cleaning his mess. She just nods and goes over to the door with him.

"Daddy?" Mituna says with some worry, thinking his daddy is leaving again. "It's okay, I'll just be right here at the door, I'm not leaving okay?" With a kiss to his head, Simon walks with the lady several feet from Mituna and leans against the door frame. Mituna seems satisfied with this, and continues to draw on the paper.

"What the HELL just happened?" Simon asks in exasperated tones.

"What happened was, he was separated from both of his safe places. You and Sollux being the safe places. He was alone with me and it triggered something in him to lash out. I've done this for a long time Mr. Captor. So I asked him what his name was. A simple question that you'd expect he'd answer 'Mituna.'"

"Oh god... what did he say?"

"I asked, 'what's your name?' and he said 'Luke.' So that angry side of him is named Luke. He'll be one to look after carefully."

"Excuse me, he'll be ONE?"

"After 'Luke' got out his rage and fear, he sat in that corner there and switched to a second alter. The alter called itself 'T'. I'm not sure on their gender. 'T' seems to be here to pick up after 'Luke' and fix whatever 'Luke' may have done. 'T' likes to organize stuff. He almost seems to be OCD. He touched the same toys many many times to make sure they were exactly where he left them and he circled the room like that for about three minutes. You saw 'Luke'."

"WHY does he have these? I'm... uneducated on this stuff since I just heard about it today..."

"Well kids usually gain these separate personalities after traumatic experiences. They take themselves away from reality and their brain creates someone who can handle the situation. It's a very specific coping mechanism the brain comes up with for different situations. Mituna was alone in a new environment with a person he didn't know in an enclosed room. It was overwhelming for him, and so his fight or flight reflexes when off. And when the fight reflex goes off, 'Luke' is pulled out to deal with the situation Mituna can't deal with. After 'Luke' dealt with the situation and got out his energy, Mituna came back for a couple seconds, but when he saw the mess that 'Luke' had made, 'T' came out to deal with the mess, because Mituna wouldn't even know where to begin cleaning such a catastrophe. After 'T' finished cleaning, he looked at his work proudly and left. Since Mituna is the host, the original, he came back out and it's almost like nothing happened. He can't remember anything he did as Luke. Luke used up all of Mituna's body's energy so Mituna was left without fear and anger and I asked him to do puzzles and color and talk to me about stuff..." Simon feels sick to his stomach... There are two personalities that his son has had to make to deal with the bullshit that those FUCKERS at the orphanage caused...

"And even when he did start doing the puzzle and drawing, he was very easily distracted. Unable to sit still for more than a minute or so. Now listen here. Just because these alters are here doesn't mean your son is broken." The lady begins, seeming to prepare to get stern. Simon shakes his head and hands quickly.

"No no, I would never think that... Did Mituna tell you about The Hole?"

"The Hole? No, nothing about that. Sounds awful though."

"Mituna and Sollux have told me about this place at the orphanage called The Hole, where they were put for HOURS if they were what the bastards considered 'bad'. Sollux tells me Mituna was there most often for the longest times..." Simon watches the lady's expression change as she thinks and folds her arms...

"I'm filing a lawsuit against them for all of this... Should I pass any information I get to you?"

"ALL of it. It'll help me out and it'll help your boys out. I haven't even GOTTEN to Sollux yet. I'm gonna go evaluate him, and you can take Mituna out with you to the lobby and then I'll send for you to come in when I'm done and I'll tell you everything else I think."

"Alright. Thank you very much..."

"We'll work it all out Mr. Captor." She reassures him and the two go back to Mituna.

"Alright Mituna, we're done in here for now." Simon says as he kneels next to his son. Mituna looks up at Simon with a smile. "Okay!" He hops up into Simon's arms a little rough, but it's so very welcome to Simon. Simon stands up and holds his boy close and kisses his head and face all over.

"Would you like to come back sometimes Mituna?" The lady asks. Mituna looks at her and stares for a couple seconds and then nods.

"Yeah! Oh, your head has an owie on it!"

"Ah not to worry. I'm just clumsy is all." The lady insists...

Simon goes out to the lobby with Mituna and sits him on his lap. Mituna wraps his legs and arms around Simon and gets a hair stroke.

"Daddy why isn't Sollux here?"

"He's talking to the lady you just talked to. She's another doctor." Simon says running his hand through his cute sons thick black hair. He needs to get that cut...

"Is Sollux gonna be okay?"

"Of course. This place is safe. No one here will hurt you ever okay?" A smile from daddy reassures Mituna and he nods, leaning his head against Simon's chest.

After a half an hour, Mituna has fallen asleep and the lady pokes her head out from behind the corner with a smile and a nod. Simon stands up carefully carrying his sleepy son to Sollux's evaluation room. Sollux is yawning, a wooden puzzle piece in his hand. He spots Simon and smiles.

"Daddyyy.~" He says tiredly.

"Hello there Sollux. Are you tired from all that work?" Simon chuckles a little and hugs Sollux close when the small boy leans into him from the little kid table he's sitting at.

"Mhm. Sleepy." Sollux nods and holds his arms up to be picked up. Simon would never ever deny his sons from being picked up, even if they were both going to be dead weight. He'll hold them until they're fucking fifty years old god dammit if it's the last thing he does.

So Simon picks his other son up and smooches him. He almost instantly falls asleep right there and Simon just bites his tongue with worry... All of this is too much. God what have those people done to his angels...

"Simon." The lady says just loud enough to break him out of his trance. He turns to her and she thumbs up for Sollux.

"He's actually A-OK. Sometimes stuff like this plays out weird. One kid will be completely fine, and the other will have a few issues that need sorting out. Sollux is actually very smart for his age. He's mature and it seems like he really digs technology. But of course you'll bring them back and I'll continue to work and study the two of them to help them better."

The two set up an appointment for the two boys to go back and set up some therapist sessions with a new person.

Simon takes his boys out to the car and they sleep all through Simon getting them in their seats and buckling them up and driving away. The whole car ride Simon doesn't even know how to sort through his own emotions. Shit, HE'LL need a therapist too if he doesn't calm his anger and thirst for revenge...

His precious angels were hurt and damaged and he wasn't there to save them... He looked for them this whole time... but even though he got the two of them at an early age, he still feels like he's a failure... He couldn't protect his own sons from their mother, and he couldn't protect them from the orphanage. God what is he going to do?...

Simon's eyes begin to sting with oncoming tears...


	5. Chapter 5

Many weeks and months pass of Mituna's strange personalities showing themselves to Simon. They don't do much... The angry personality Luke hasn't had any fits at home yet, but he does appear and he has quite a foul mouth on him... T has come by more often than Luke though and Simon welcomes this personality. Although his favorite will always be Mituna of course... In fact, Mituna is the only one of the three he wants. But no matter who's present in his son's body, they are all his son.

A few years pass like this. School is relatively easy for Sollux, but very difficult for Mituna. If things get hard for him and he gets frustrated, Luke will come out sometimes and kick a desk over.

Jr High rolls around and the two are older now. Taller. Mituna is far taller than Sollux though. Mituna's placed in a special education classroom and after only a week of being there he HATES it. He hates everyone in the class, some of whom should probably be in a more... appropriate kind of class, and some who don't look at all "dumb". Mituna wonders where he fits in this awful class...

The teacher gets frustrated with a girl in a wheel chair and shouts "God you're so stupid!" The young girl looks shocked and then looks down at her knees sadly. Mituna knows that look... He understands it.

Everything goes black for Mituna and the next thing he knows he's in a separate classroom.

"Ow..." His knuckles hurt. He looks down at them and his hands are red, knuckles bleeding. Does he taste blood in his mouth? Mituna reaches up to touch his lip where there's a big ol' split. How the hell did all this happen?

"Hello?" Mituna calls out. He looks around and it seems to be a janitors office or something.

"HELLO?!" He suddenly screams. This place reminds him of The Hole... The Hole... THE HOLE...

"LET ME OUT!" Mituna stands up from where he was apparently sitting and starts banging on the door.

"HELP! HELP!" Mituna screams and hits the door with his hands, feeling very claustrophobic. Outside the door he hears people talking. He leans into the door crack to hear better and it seems to be teachers and-

"DAD! DAD! DAD GET ME OUT PLEASE!" He begs, tears beginning to form in his eyes.

"Mituna, I'm here, daddy's here. Hold on okay? Don't be scared, it's okay-"

"it'S NOT OKAY!" Says someone Mituna doesn't recognize.

"Neither is calling a student stupid. She KNOWS better! If she didn't say something so terrible, Mituna wouldn't have gotten upset!"

"DAD!" Hearing his dad yell was scary... He never hears Simon yell. Sure, he raises his voice a little sometimes, but yelling...

"I'm sorry Tuna. I'll get you out of there now. Are you okay?"

"I... I think so... M-my lip hurts... and my knuckles too." God what did he do?... Did he hurt someone?

"Please unlock the door sir. I'm taking Mituna home." Footsteps of some nice sounding shoes come up to the door and the jingle jangle of keys rattle against the door and the door opens. Mituna half runs out and crashes into Simon the second he sees him. He hugs his dad tightly and cries into his shoulder. Simon holds him and pets his hair, shooshing him.

"His behavior was outrageous; we HAD to lock him up!" The special ed teacher says. She's got quite a black eye and her neck is red with finger marks... another boys face has bandages and ice on him across the hall.

"YOU'RE behavior was outrageous. I'll be seeing to it that you get fired." Simon says in a low angry voice. It scares Mituna a little bit, but he's just glad it's not directed at him.

"Because CLEARLY you are unfit as a leader for that class. I have no pity for stupidity and ignorance you shoddy excuse for a teacher. Officers, you can clearly see Mituna is only scared." Police? Oh right, the school security officers that are placed around school.

The other boy with bandages and ice is some kid who was skipping class. Did he get in the way of whatever Mituna did? He can't remember it... why? This hasn't happened before... He can't remember this ever happening before! What's going on?!

Mituna looks at the teacher and her beaten up self... Mituna blacked out and he must have... he... he strangled her with both hands... but he must have let go at some point to punch the teachers face in a few times around the right side of her face... Then he left the room in a huff and that boy was walking the halls when he should have been in class. Did he say something to evoke Mituna's rage? Or was he just in the way? Mituna must have punched him so hard and so much that his own knuckles got messed up...

Oh god... Oh god he's hurt people... He's hurt people!

"D...dad... Daddy I d-didn't mean to... I..." Simon looks back at Mituna and takes his face lightly.

"No no, I know you didn't. It's okay, I'm taking you home."

"I... she called Cassie stupid... a...and I got mad... I don't..." Mituna takes several steps back away from Simon and looks down at his bloodied and red hands.

"Mituna?" Simon says cautiously... Mituna looks up at the security officers, the teacher he hurt, the boy he hurt and his dad with a worried expression on his face... No... No, stop looking... Stop looking at me...

Mituna breaks into a sprint to the front doors of the school. He runs as hard as he can and hits the metal opening handle of the schools front doors and runs outside. Behind him he can hear his dad calling for him to wait. But he can't. He can't go back and look his father in the face now. He can't go back and see the people that he's hurt without even knowing it.

Sollux. He wants his brother. Sollux where are you. Save me... Save me!

"MITUNA STOP WAIT!" Simon calls, running after his son. The officers jog behind him and the teacher just harrumphs and stands there.

Simon runs out the front door and sees Mituna running into the street.

"MITUNA!" He yells as he runs.

Mituna spots from the corner of his eye, a red Toyota truck barreling towards him. The man inside is texting and not looking where he's going. It's only a moment, but he just feels like giving up...

The truck crashes into the whole of Mituna and sends him under, dragging him for nearly 90 feet when the man inside realizes something is wrong. He hit something, but what was it? The truck didn't pitch up. Was it a deer?

Simon's heart falls and his legs almost give out. He just watched his frightened son get run over by a fucking truck and get dragged.

There are smeared bloody marks from under the truck and Simon can see his son under the car, caught up somewhere in the middle by a belt loop on his pants. There's not as much blood as one would expect, but as Simon runs closer he can see there is a lot of skin ripped off of Mituna's arms and his jeans are ripped terribly, blood caking already.

Mituna can very slightly hear yelling and screaming. One of the voices is his dad. Ah man his skin burns... Huh. Never mind. It's becoming numb. That's good. He was beginning to wory...

The world goes black and quiet for Mituna.


	6. Chapter 6

He fades in and out of dreams. Most of them are hard to remember. But one thing he does keep dreaming about is his dad and Sollux crying. His arms hurting. His LEGS hurting. God and his hip hurts...

He also dreams about some other kids he's never seen before. But they all seem very familiar to him. Weird. They don't really have any features he can recognize. No faces, no hair that his brain can process. But he can FEEL their personalities. One is angry and the other is calm. The angry one. Hmmm. The angry one... Why is he that way Mituna wonders. Before he can say anything to them, everything goes black again and he swears he can feel himself moving somewhere fast. Backwards? Forwards? The feelings are similar and he can't tell what's happening. But suddenly he feels his arms jolt. Everything feels different now. More real.

There's beeping. God stop beeping, it's irritating... Is someone talking? More voices he doesn't recognize. That's getting pretty old.

Mituna opens his eyes. Parts of him hurt still he notes and he's very stiff. He feels like he's a part of whatever it is he's laying on. It's not very comfortable...

"Mituna?" Comes Simon. Ah finally. Someone he knows. Mituna goes to talk but his throat won't work correctly. It hurts to speak.

"Oh my god. You really are awake... Thank God... Okay Mituna, please try to listen carefully. Don't be scared." Mituna feels his hand being touched. Simon holds his hand with both of his own and squeezes. Another pair of hands hold his other hand. Mituna moves his eyes painfully to his other side and he sees Sollux. While his eyes are on their way to see his brother, they spot a mask and he is suddenly very aware of some stupid plastic tubes up his nose?

"Mituna... Dad and I are here, so don't freak out okay?" Sollux says quietly. Mituna is thankful for it because he's sure that if either of them spoke above a loud whisper his ears may explode.

The most he can do is close his eyes and nod just a TINY bit. It hurts. Simon speaks.

"Listen Mituna. You ran out of school and you were hit by a truck." He pauses to let Mituna absorb that information, then continues. "The man was texting and not paying attention. And now you are in the hospital. Now stay calm when I tell you this." Another pause.

"You have been at this hospital in that bed for five months in a coma." Mituna thinks for a long stretch of seconds. A coma? For five months? That explains why he's so stiff. He opens his mouth, but it feels like his jaw is wired shut. Like rust on metal that's been out in the rain by the sea for many years.

"You were very badly hurt son. I won't tell you what they were right now, but right now you're mostly healed up. Your tibia, which is the bigger of the two lower leg bones is still healing, but it should be about done next month."

"Can you squeeze my hand Mituna?" Sollux says. Mituna thinks about it, still trying to get his brain to process everything... Squeeze. Right.

Mituna's fingers twitch a little and they feel strange. But he manages to squeeze his brothers fingers a little bit... His dad said he ran out of the school? What school? Why did he run? He can't seem to remember much of anything...

He squeezes Simon's hand as well and opens his eyes a little more. Simon doesn't look so good. He looks tired and paler than Mituna can remember. Which is still very little.

"Dad... Sollux." Mituna manages to choke out, his voice raspy and cracking. Oh it hurts! His throat is so dry it makes Mituna wince once he does manage to speak.

"It's okay, you don't have to talk if it hurts." Simon uses one hand to lightly run his fingers through his sons hair. It feels good to Mituna. Relaxing and safe.

"I can't... rem...br... anyt..ng..." Mituna says with much trouble. Sollux looks up at Simon and Simon nods a little.

"That's okay Mituna. It's normal for you not to remember stuff right away when waking up from a coma... You're very lucky to have woken up at all you know..." Simon's worried face saddens Mituna. Something awful must have happened. What was it? Hmm... Sollux speaks up.

"Mituna, lots of people from school have sent you flowers and stuffed animals and stuff you know."

"To... me?" Mituna says. Sollux nods and nudges his head over to the foot of Mituna's bed where there's an end table with roses and daisies and stuffed bears and dogs with hearts and cards in their paws.

"I love you!" Claims a little brown bear.

"Get well soon!" Claims a spotted dog. "XOXO" and other sorts of things along with some chocolate truffles are there. Those truffles look good, even though they're only pictures on the cover of the heart box. Does he like truffles? He thinks so.

"Yeah. All this stuff is for you. Kids from school were worried about you and a few of 'em even stayed and talked to you for a while, hoping you could hear them. Did you? Or can you remember?" Mituna's eyes begin to sting and he closes them. Kids were here talking to him? A lot of his dreams were vague and quick...

"Maybe." Mituna manages to say. "I heard... you and... dad mostly." Simon smiles a little bit and continues to run his fingers in Mituna's hair.

"I can't remember... lots." Mituna's raspy voice makes Sollux cringe a little and wishes Mituna could clear his throat.

"Well let's see. Do you know you're name?" Simon says quietly. Mituna thinks... and nods a smidgen.

"It's Mituna Captor."

"Very good. Do you know how old you are?"

"Fourteen I think."

"That's right." Simon nods "And you know who Sollux and I are right?" Mituna nods.

"My brother and my dad." Sollux seems to relax, relieved that Mituna remembered him...

"Do you know where you live? What the address is?" Simon says. Right, Mituna must live somewhere. Right? Hmmm. He shakes his head, unable to get any numbers from his memories.

"That's alright. What about... how to count?" Mituna takes a second or so to nod. "Up to a million billion." He says. Simon chuckles a little and Sollux just smiles, a worried look still on his face.

"Do we have a pet at home?" Sollux asks. With a shake of Mituna's head, sollux nods.

"That's right. Know why?"

"We're all allergic to cats and dogs. So I have a cactus." Mituna says. Sollux laughs a little and nods.

"Yup. Barry the cactus."

"Can you wiggle your toes son?" Simon asks. Movement in the blankets at Mituna's feet reassures Simon. He reaches down and pinches them a little bit, as if to warm them.

"Can you feel what I'm doing?"

"Mhm." Mituna nods and Simon sits back straight in his seat.

"Very good. I'm not a professional, but I know that fingers and toes are a very good sign. Now listen Tuna, a doctor is going to come in and look you over and maybe talk to you for a little bit. But please don't be scared. Because we'll still be in the room, understand? We're not leaving you alone." Simon rubs his thumb on Mituna's cheek and Mituna nods a little.

As if summoned by those words, a doctor does indeed walk in and quietly asks how things are. Sollux explains that Mituna is awake finally and the doctor seems delighted. Simon and Sollux stand up and move off to the side while the doctor comes up to Mituna.

Simon holds Sollux's hand and uses his other hand to wipe at his eye. Sollux looks up at his dad and squeezes his hand. It's been a trying and very long five months. The teacher was fired after abuse was found before the Mituna incident in class, the boy Mituna's alter Luke beat up has forgiven him and even come by to visit. Simon was talked to a lot about Mituna's condition. If he'd wake up or not. If his precious son would ever wake up again. Mituna had a very awful concussion, a spinal fracture, both of his legs were broken as was his hip and many ribs. His nose and left cheekbone were broken and his jaw was yanked out of place and most of these things required surgery to fix. Appointments have already been made for Mituna's physical therapy he'll need to get through the healing process completely and correctly, and Simon has been stressing so hard. Sollux too.

It's taken a toll on Sollux's school work, worrying about his brother, being teased for having a Quasimodo brother and other ridiculous things. Sollux and Simon agreed quitting that school would be for the best and after much money saving, doctor bills can be mostly paid off, and Mituna can get better schooling at a facility that handles Mituna's sort of situation. It's all been so tiring and nerve wracking that today is in fact a miracle. Mituna's chance of waking up was really 50/50. And Simon and Sollux both are very happy that the best half ended up happening.

The doctor finishes up with Mituna and walks up to Simon.

"Well Simon, Mituna's vitals and all that are doing pretty well. He'll still need about another weeks rest though. He may even get to start moving around after that. It's quite likely now that he's awake."

"Well yeah, more likely than if he were asleep." Sollux says with sass. Simon just looks down at him with a look and Sollux sorta turns his head, avoiding that parental disaproval.

"Thank you doctor. When can he eat food? Solids and stuff."

More doctor talk happens and Mituna just tunes it all out while he tries to remember what the hell happened to him. What the heck got him into this situation? Ah what the hell. Fuck it. He'll try again when he's not so damn tired...

Once the doctor leaves, Simon looks over at Mituna, and his boy is sleeping once again. But this time, he'll wake up in the next day, and not in the next half a year.


End file.
